I've been sitting with this letter sent to me by EDS for some two days and I still can't figure exactly what made me snap, and compose this letter that you are reading now.
Maybe it was the opening paragraph:
Thank you for submitting your application to EDS Canada through the Ottawa Student Employment Center.Stop right there. I never submitted my résumé through the Ottawa Student Employment Center. I didn't even know that EDS had sollicited a student position at the abovesaid center, although it definitely interests me. This leaves me stupefied. Is there something EDS knows that I don't know? Or maybe the answer is more simple.
The Problem of Form Letters!
Right now I am sitting on a stack of 50 or so similarly composed letters, representing enquiries made to corporations and recruiters, going back to October, 1995, which is when I graduated with a three-year BSc in Computer Science at UWO. Those that bother writing back, which by my experience is about 10%, usually thank the applicant, and make some vague promises to "hold your résumé on file" for 6 months. The letter may add that you lack practical experience, or you lack some necessary qualifications. If you are lucky the recruiter will make promises to "keep my ear to the ground" in case something comes up."
Most of these look as if they have been composed in such a way to apply to the vast majority of applicants, with the mere substitution of the applicant's name with somebody else being the only difference. A secretary, or even the recruiter, will affix their signature to the letter, and send out the sad news via Canada Post to the applicant in question. Return to sender.
The letter I received suggests this was the case, and was the result of a blanket response to all the unlucky applicants to a position that was solicited in Ottawa. This beguiles me, because my letter was in response to something else (if anybody had even bothered to read the cover letter that came affixed to the résumé that I faxed some two weeks ago.)
The genesis of that facsimile it goes back to a previous one sent to EDS some 4 months or so ago. It was in response to something I saw in one of several sources. It could have been solicited at the UWO Employment Web site, an advertisement in the Toronto Star, or something else. I don't recall off hand which source it was, but I would not have wrote to EDS if I were not genuinely interested in what they had to offer. I was subsequently sent in the mail, some time in April, a form reply from your office.
Three months later, I sent an additional inquiry. In the cover letter which was affixed with the résumé, it was sent for the purpose of "updating my résumé" in the EDS database (I have refined it many times), and stating my intentions to apply for any position that might be open to entry-level computer graduates. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Somebody read the letter - maybe a little too quickly - placed it in the pile of rejects, and then authorized sending me the blanket form that was sent to most of the Ottawa Student Employment Center applicants.
The Value of a University Education
Perhaps not a little off topic is a conversation I had with representatives from Saber at the Toronto Skydome during Comdex. I told them my predicament. Essentially it boils down to this:
After graduating from the UWO computer science program with a three-year degree at the Fall Convocation, I bombarded potential employers - first only London, then Eastern Canada - with my résumé. I applied through solicitations made at the UWO Employment Center or the Fanshawe Jobs Hotline, and cherry-picked several potential employers and recruiters (like Saber,) from advertisements in the Toronto Star. I can count on one hand the number of interviews that I have been given. Are there no positions for which a typical UWO grad is qualified in the computer field?
I have edited my cover letters and résumés constantly to focus on what I want and what, if any, qualifications I have. Which returns me back to Saber. The representative pointed to the full-time and contract positions available, stating most employers want University, and not Community College computer degrees, but are looking for skills in older computer systems - usually IBM mainframes such as AS400's running Cobol, CICS, IMS and a variety of arcane machine names, languages and systems.
Unfortunately, the only way these skills can be taught is through Fanshawe, the local community college, because UWO has dropped many things from its program over the years. The year I entered second year, for example, they had dropped Cobol from its second-year course calendar.
A second problem, which may be related to my predicament, is a predilection against hiring anybody with less than two years practical experience, which effectively shuts own new graduates from these positions. A vast number of Computer grads such as myself find it extremely difficult even to get our proverbial feet in the door. Companies do not want spend the money training new grads when they can wait a couple more weeks (or months) trying to fill open positions with more qualified people. If there are positions for grads, they are contract positions. Maybe if they are lucky they will stay on. Otherwise, back to the rat race.
Most grads I know, from either the UWO or the Fanshawe program, are in the latter. After three or six months, they go back on the street, with more practical experience, and a few more lines in their résumé, in the same predicament they faced after graduation - trying to find a semi-permanent job with which they could apply their newfound computer skills. This is my goal, to build a real IT career. It requires patience and effort, but both of mine are wearing thin.
The So-Called Software Engineer Shortage
I recall a Globe and Mail article suggesting that Canada had a serious shortage of shortage of software engineers, something on the order of 100,000. This doesn't surprise me. Grads, even IT grads, are not finding potential work opportunities. Universities and corporations are not coordinating their programs to facilitate future employment for their graduates, thus thwarting the corporate desire for new blood and qualified personnel.
These corporations, wary to fix the shortcomings of a particular educational program, would rather sit it out until somebody qualified comes along, than make an investment in training new graduates who are lacking in certain arenas. These, I believe, are the real reasons that Canada is suffering this so-called shortage. Badly structured educational programs and the resultant conservative hiring policies.
The Value of a UWO Degree - Revisited
Which brings me back to my question - what is the value of a UWO computer science degree? Ultimately, it may be of little value. Maybe, two years from now, with some experience under my belt, it might be beneficial to a future position. Right now it isn't helping. I find it excruciatingly difficult to even obtain an interview.
My background is typical of UWO CS grads. A 4-year degree may provide more prestige, but in practical terms it is an extension of the previous three years. I suspect 4-year grads fare a little better, but not much more. It is unlikely that I will be going back for my fourth year.
After giving it my best, I am thinking about temporarily packing it in and going back to college to pick up an Engineering degree. I am hoping that this will be less difficult than the path which I chose some 4 years or so ago at UWO. Maybe Engineering is a tough nut to crack, but I'm up for new challenges.
A Short Request
I may have been a bit laborious in the presentation, but as suggested in the header, it was EDS's mis-sent form letter that brought it all on. Now that you have made it this far (I hope), I am going to ask for a small favor. It isn't much, but I value it nonetheless. It requires that you look over my résumé and cover letter again, this time with the purpose of asking the following questions:
Even as I consider picking up some hardware engineering training to my software background , my goal desire to enter and remain in the IT market is the same.
Thanks in advance
John Larocque
View also my main page.